Provided is an examination of the methodology used to study the problems of learning addition and subtraction skills used by developmental researchers. The report has sections on categories of theory and their methodologies, which review: (1) Behaviorist, Neo-Behaviorist and Piagetian Theories; (2) the Behaviorist and Piagetian Paradigms; (3)…

This report opens by asking how operations in general, and addition and subtraction in particular, are characterized for elementary school students, and examines the "standard" instruction of these topics through secondary schooling. Some common errors and/or "sloppiness" in the typical textbook presentations are noted, and…

Suggests that children enter school with a great deal of informal intuitive knowledge of mathematics that can serve as the basis for developing much of the formal mathematics of the primary school curriculum. Describes a research-based model of children's thinking that teachers can use to interpret, transform, and reframe their informal or…